


Scars and Healing

by TheLonelyTree



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Not the typical scar talk, Takes place after Ember Island Players, but can be taken whichever way you want, katara and zuko bonding, meant as a gen fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26331514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLonelyTree/pseuds/TheLonelyTree
Summary: "Given the opportunity, would you get rid of your scar?”“I don’t know.”---Katara and Zuko have a chance to talk about what happened down in the catacombs.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	Scars and Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. All rights go to the wonderful cast and crew at Nickelodeon.   
> Enjoy!

Ember Island always looked nice this time of year. The waves softly crashing against white-sand shore were a lighter hue than normal. An assortment of birds were gathering in the clear sky. All things considered, the end of the world looked pretty peaceful.

“Mind if I join you?”

Zuko looked up to see Katara standing awkwardly on the wooden steps leading to his family’s vacation home. Shuffling slightly, he returned his hands to their position around his knees, mumbling a soft “sure,” in invitation.

She sat down next to him. “I was thinking… about the play…”

“Yeah, me too.”

She hummed. Despite earning her forgiveness, Zuko still felt awkward around her, like things just didn’t click into place how they should. She obviously felt the same, picking at her clothes as she was.

“Zuko I-” Katara stopped, tilting her head down in thought. “About the catacombs and how I offered to heal you-”

“I know. I know it was wrong of me to betray you like I did, and I know it isn’t fair to ask for your trust.”

She smiled softly, stopping him before he could get to apologizing. “It isn’t about that. And, for what it’s worth, I think you’ve proven yourself trustworthy to me.”

“But I-”

“But I need you to listen to me for a few minutes. It’s hard enough to get my thoughts straight without you interrupting me every time I speak.”

Zuko settled back into the sand, just realizing how his body was ready to spring up like a reaction to a real fight. “Ok,” he said, “what is it?”

“When I offered to heal you, I thought it might work because I would be using the spirit water from the northern oasis. I was wondering, when this is all over, would you like me to try again?”

“I thought you used that on Aang?”

“I did.” She fiddled with the canteen on her hip. “But there could be the possibility of getting more.”

He looked down, taking a fistful of sand and letting it drop back to the ground. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Let’s say that for some reason the people of the Northern Water Tribe are willing to forgive me for me and my people’s crimes.” Katara nodded at him to go on. “Wouldn’t it be better to save the water for people who actually need it? For the people who have wounds in need of immediate treatment?”

“But let's say that hypothetically-”

“Why are you pushing this!”

“Because, Zuko, everybody is so caught up in what happened during that play that no one is looking past ‘will we win the battle?’ I want to be able to look forward to what happens afterwards. And I think you do too. So, ignoring all conditions and restrictions, given the opportunity, would you get rid of your scar?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

Zuko looked at her, trying to translate his thoughts into an understandable explanation. “It’s just that, in a way, my scar serves as a reminder for what I’ve been through. It has a lot of bad memories attached to it, sure, but there’s something else as well.”

She looked at him, trying to read him with her big blue eyes, mouth curved into a slight frown. At least she was making an effort to listen to him.

“I just feel like… getting rid of it would be erasing a part of me. It’d be like ignoring what I’ve gone through and how I’ve changed. I can’t really imagine myself without it, as stupid as it seems.”

“No, no. It doesn’t sound stupid at all. It’s like… as bad as it makes you feel… and all the memories it drags up… it’s also a source of comfort.” Zuko didn’t miss how she fingered her mother’s necklace at that.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Zuko looked at Katara and tried to give her a smile of his own. “Thanks, Katara.”

“Of course.”

Their chat faded into a comfortable silence after that. Both parties content with just basking in the sunset. Sometimes it was nice to just relax. To forget all thinking. To just bask in the comfort of a friend.

“Katara! Zuko!” The pair jerked their heads towards the sound of Sokka’s voice. The water tribe boy had his head poked inside, communicating with the house’s other occupants. “They’re over here!”

A soft breeze and the avatar was sitting in the formerly empty spot next to Zuko. “Hey guys, what’s up?”

The sound of stomping and a lighter set of footsteps indicated Toph and Suki’s arrival. “We would have found them so much faster if you had let me look outside.”

“Oh please, it hardly even took three seconds.”

“Three seconds too long. I could have done it in two.”

“My feet haven’t even left the wood.”

“I can’t see on wood anyways. What if they’d been inside?”

“Then you would have yelled.”

Zuko threw his head back, letting himself be comforted by the sound of his friends' bickering.

“So, what  _ were _ you guys talking about?”

Katara laughed, “Nothing, Sokka. Just the play.”

“The  _ play _ ? Not this again.”

Yeah, Zuko didn’t think he wanted to get rid of the scar. Without it, who’s to say he would have ever had the chance to make friends such as these?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a way to procrastinate an English essay. Was it worth it?


End file.
